Red Eléctrica, the Redeia subsidiary responsible for electricity transmission and system operation in Spain, yesterday submitted its statement of defence regarding the sanctioning proceeding initiated by the Energy Directorate of the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) and notified on 17 April. 

In these submissions, Red Eléctrica defends and demonstrates that its actions fully comply with current regulations and that no infringement can be attributed to it. The company has attached all evidence proving this compliance, which, in its view, should lead to the immediate dismissal of the case. 

This comes despite a complete lack of the necessary precision regarding the facts on which the CNMC bases its accusations. This clearly deprives Red Eléctrica of its right to a defence, forcing the company – defying all logic – to prove its innocence. This lack of precision is incompatible with the technical complexity and the exhaustive nature of the prior procedure conducted by the regulator. At the regulator's own request, Red Eléctrica had already provided more than fifty reports and documents to this procedure, demonstrating that the sanctioning process against the System Operator is unjustified. Surprisingly, however, this documentation has not been included in the sanctioning file.  

Finally, in its statement, Red Eléctrica highlights the publicly known conflict of interest within the CNMC, which would compromise the necessary guarantees of impartiality and objectivity.